Did you find you lost weight when you stopped breastfeeding?

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I’ve been trying to lose the last stone of baby weight for the last 9 months and even by increasing cardio to 3x a week, eating healthily, nothing has budged.

Is it true that breastfeeding makes you hold onto a reserve?

Ideally I want to naturally ween, but at the moment I can’t increase exercise any more than I’m doing

No! I put on weight when I stopped feeding- I guess because I carried on eating the same!

I also put weight on

No, because by that time I was already pregnant with DC2. So annoying, I'd only just got back into my favourite jeans

I lost weight for each baby after stopping breastfeeding. I definitely kept a fat reserve which makes sense.

No.
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I didn't lose my baby weight until I stopped breastfeeding. It came off pretty quick then.

No BF kept me extremely slim, the reserve is there to help you BF from my understanding and I lost mine very quickly. I started gaining a bit of weight once I stopped BF.

Yes I lost weight stopping breastfeeding. I think it was a combination of getting more sleep (tiredness makes me hungry) and hormones. The hormone prolactin (street name; the fat storing hormone) is secreted to stimulate milk production.

It's a good thing if a woman's body can have fat reserves to feed their baby. If you were stranded on an island with nothing to eat you could still feed your child (for example)

I think women aren't all the same so may react differently to hormone levels. My experience was a quite significant weight loss and a joyous feeling of having my body back. That's probably an awful thing to say.

Of course, it's not a reason to give up or avoid breast feeding. No judgement here though, I assume you've persevered for 9 months

It’s terrible I am actually looking forward to getting my body back

In reality I will be feeding her for as long as she asks

Just hopeful that this stubborn 6-10lb will finally go once I do as it feels I’ve tried so hard to do it with exercise and diet

Yes, I lost that stubborn last half a stone effortlessly as soon as I stopped breastfeeding.

For me it wasn't when I stopped breastfeeding, but when my babies started properly eating solids around the 8 or 9 month mark. My periods came back and instantly a half stone dropped off. So yes, my body evidently likes to keep a weight reserve for exclusive milk production. I imagine for some people they'd need to stop feeding altogether for their body to let it go.

Yes I definitely struggle to lose weight when breastfeeding. It's much easier when you stop!

Yes, definitely. Mind you I was constantly starving and eating when breastfeeding. As others said it just fell off without trying once I'd stopped.